Last month, in a wave of new regulations designed to preserve the French language, Quebec premier François Legault imposed a requirement that temporary foreign workers pass an intermediate French test after just three years living in the province. In a powerful essay for Maclean’s, migrant advocate Carlos Rojas says the move is purely political and not sincerely designed to help newcomers quickly learn French.
Rojas is the director of Conseil Migrant, a non-profit that helps migrants navigate life in Canada. He argues that Quebec has set unrealistic expectations. Foreign workers, he says, are working long hours, which leaves no time to squeeze in French lessons. They often live in cramped apartments, conditions that would make learning a language challenging. Many don’t have laptops, just smartphones, and some don’t have internet access.
Rojas says that if the government was serious about French education, it would help temporary foreign workers study and succeed, providing them with several hours a week of paid time to study and access to facilities to learn French. The real test of Quebec’s new rules, he says, will come in a few years. He predicts that if temporary foreign workers don’t meet the language requirement and lose their status, they won’t leave the country. Instead, they’ll start working under the table—an outcome that would hurt both the workers and Quebec itself.
—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief
